


Before all Hell Breaks Loose

by smaragdbird



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, finn never knew just how much hadley loves him, post-witch hunt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-30 00:28:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5143622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn gets his wish of studying the eluvian and gets his favourite templar to help him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before all Hell Breaks Loose

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt on the dragon age kink meme.](http://dragonage-kink.livejournal.com/3486.html?thread=24926622#t24926622)

“Commander Hadley, here’s a letter for you.” Hadley recognised the handwriting immediately. Only Finn had this flourish that made his letters look beautiful but almost illegible.

Dear Hadley,  
My research has taken a more than fascinating turn. I’m currently in Vigil’s Keep as the Grey Wardens needed to be informed that their Commander has vanished. Also their library has some very interesting books. If Commander Greagoir is back do you think you could spare a few weeks to accompany to the dragon wastes? I can always ask the Wardens but they might want to recruit me and I don’t want to. It seems to fit Anders just fine but it involves too much fighting and running through the country side.  
You will like Virgil’s Keep. I would have suggested an inn in Amaranthine but Virgil’s Keep is closer and the walls here are very thick and I have been given my own room.  
Do come as soon as possible. Who knows what may happen to the Eluvian if you take too long.  
Yours  
Finn

Hadley swallowed hard as he read the last part again. Thick walls, a bed, privacy and not stolen kisses behind bookcases and desperate rutting in hidden corners of the Repositorium where they could be caught at any moment.

He had suggested a couple times to use Finn’s permission to leave the Tower, find an inn and not the leave the room for a week at least but Finn had rebuffed his idea every time, scandalised that he should use his permission for something as trivial as romance.

Only now he was. Hadley was sure of it. Well, not only. Knowing Finn he would actually drag him out to the dragon waste and made them camp there for the whole three months to experiment with whatever that Eluvian was. But three months in a tent in the middle of nowhere still meant more privacy than they had ever had before.

/

Finn was sitting in the main room, nursing a beer. It was crowded but people still gave him space and a lot of wary looks. A lot of them seemed relieved when Hadley entered as if Finn was a dangerous apostate or something. The Chantry taught that perception of magic with good reason but it still amused Hadley to think of Finn, knowledge-hungry, easily frightened Finn as dangerous. Unless of course the people in here would start to burn books, then all bets were off.

“You took your time”, Finn said when Hadley sat down.

“I wanted to give the Wardens a fair chance of tempting you into joining”, he answered only to see Finn’s face. It made him want to lean over the table and kiss him but then most of Finn’s expressions had that effect on him.

“Do you want a pint?” Finn asked, deliberately innocent and it was driving Hadley mad. This constant hunger he had for Finn was only worse now that he was in front of him after being apart for almost three weeks.

“I’d rather go over the plans for your expedition.”

“Of course!” Finn’s face lit up like a bonfire and he pulled out a map of the area around Vigil’s keep. On it he had marked a place in the middle of the dragon wastes. 

“There’s a stream down here so as long as we pack enough food – and the Warden’s commander already assured me that we would get as much as we want to, she’s a friend of Anders’ and understands the importance of proper research - we don’t have to leave for as long as it should take me study the Eluvian. But if we need we can simply go up the Pilgrim’s path, there should be enough traders along that road to avoid having to return to Vigil’s keep although I suppose we can if we have to…”

“Maybe we should discuss these plans in private?” He suggested when Finn had to stop talking to breathe. 

“Oh”, Finn said as if he had honestly not wasted a single thought on his private room with a soft bed those thick walls Hadley had fantasised about since he’d gotten Finn’s letter. The sad thing was that, even after seven years of knowing Finn, Hadley still didn’t know whether Finn was playing him or not in a situation like this.

“Yes, we should. Absolutely.” He folded up his map and drained his beer before dragging Hadley through the room and up the stairs by his arm.

A few Wardens made lewd comments but Finn, long since used to teasing, bantered back and Hadley ignored them. Then Finn dragged him through a door and up another few stairs and along a battlement until they reached Finn’s room.

Hadley couldn’t tell who moved first as soon as the door closed behind them. Finn pulled the straps of his armour apart with quick practice while Hadley was untying his robes. A room with thick walls and no one was going to interrupt them. No one cared and the idea that he could take his time with Finn for once, could strip him down and explore every inch of his skin had accompanied Hadley since Finn’s letter had arrived. They might as well throw him into Aeonar if he would waste this chance.

/

“I was scared when you were out there alone”, Hadley admitted afterwards while Finn was resting on his chest. It felt indulgent, being able just to lie there, sated and naked and not having to fear detection.

Finn looked amused. “I am a mage, you remember that, right? And I wasn’t alone.”

“Still”, Hadley carded his fingers through Finn’s hair. “Did you enjoy the spectacle you did for your friends back at the Circle.”

“Yes, it’s not like anyone in the Circle still believes I’m scared of you. I was so convincing the Warden Commander asked me if I wanted to join the Wardens.”

“And what did you say?”

“What did you think I said?” Finn asked back. “Do daily exercise and numerous trips to the deep roads to kill darkspawn sound like something I’d enjoy?

Hadley had to admit that he had a point. “Maybe Anders converted you.”

“As if”, Finn scoffed. “Besides the library at Vigil’s Keep is tiny. My parents had more books than the Wardens.”

Hadley couldn’t help but laugh at Finn’s indignant tone and when Finn scowled at him he leaned over to kiss him.

/

“Let’s just stay here forever”, Hadley said one morning, two weeks into Finn’s research expedition, tracing invisible patterns on Finn’s arm. 

“My research will take some time”, Finn assured him. “Not forever maybe but a few months.”

“I might get used to this”, Hadley warned him. “Waking up with you…not sneaking around…not fearing detection….”

“I am not eloping with you”, Finn said firmly but affectionately.

Hadley smiled sadly. No, that would be the last thing Finn would do. He was one of the few who were happy living in the Circle. He supposed that if he had fallen for someone like Anders he would have long since destroyed his phylactery and run for the hills with him. But instead he had fallen for Finn, bookish, passionate, steadfast, quirky Finn.

/

Andraste was smiling on them because Hadley was on a supply run to Amaranthine when he got the news. 

He was still shaking when he came back to Finn and their camp in the Dragon Waste. He had never been Anders’ greatest admirer but on a certain level he had understood his desire for freedom. Especially once he had fallen for Finn he had felt every day how bound the two of them were, each in his own way.

But this – the King had done what he could but the authority of the church superseded the power of the crown and the Right of Annulment had been called down on the Fereldan Circle. 

Finn was doing something in front of the big mirror when he heard Hadley approach and turned to greet him. Hadley wrapped his arms around him and buried his face in Finn’s hair.

“Did they cut my research time? Are you hurt? Is something wrong? Why are you crying?” Hadley hadn’t even realised he was until Finn told him. “You’re scaring me. What happened?”

He sat down with Finn and told him everything he knew about Anders and Kirkwall and the Right of Annulment.

“What are you going to do?” Finn asked in a tone that gave nothing away.

“I’ve got some clothes for you, normal clothes, money, too and food. Amaranthine isn’t that far. You can take a boat. I’ll tell them you’re dead. I’m Knight-Captain, they’ll believe me. I’ll transfer to Antiva in a couple months. And if I meet a fellow Fereldan there, well, lucky me, right?” At the last sentence Hadley looked tentatively at Finn. Due to Finn’s preference to stay in the tower they had never discussed what would happen between them if Finn ever got his freedom somehow. 

“How long have you been planning this?” Finn asked and Hadley was relived because this was a question he could answer easily.

“I may have made up a couple scenarios for us escaping in case you ever changed your mind about the tower.” He tried to pass it off with a smile but Finn looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

“You…but you never said anything.”

“You seemed happy to stay in the Circle. And commander Greagoir trusts me to do the right thing if it would ever come to that.” The irony wasn’t lost on him. But Finn hadn’t turned into an abomination and to slaughter every Circle in Thedas because of something one mage had done, however horrible, seemed excessive to Hadley. “Running away would have put your life in danger.”

Finn looked so speechless, so astonished by Hadley’s choice that it was sobering. Hadley was obviously a fool for putting so much thought into a relationship that didn’t matter as much to Finn.

“Forget it”, Hadley said dejectedly. “Just stay safe. I should probably get on my way back to the Circle.”

“What? No!” Finn grabbed his arm with both hands. “I was surprised. I didn’t think I was that important to you.”

“What have I done that you doubt my love for you that much?” Hadley asked quietly.

“It’s not that. But I’m a mage and you’re a templar. I know you love me but you just told me you value me more than everything else in your life and all the vows you have ever made. That’s a lot to take in.”

“Is it too much?” Hadley asked.

Finn shook his head and smiled at him. “How are you going to find me in Antiva?”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me [ here](http://smaragdbird.tumblr.com/) on tumblr


End file.
